--- title: "Soared 100%! Can Lakala, riding the trend, successfully 'break through'?" type: "Topics" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/31506629.md" description: "The digital currency industry continues to receive positive news. Riding on this momentum, Lakala, which has been listed for many years, has finally caught the wind. Data shows that Lakala's stock price has surged by over 100% in the past three months. Following the sharp rise in its stock price, Lakala has also announced plans for a Hong Kong listing. Of course, the stock price increase is not strongly correlated with its fundamentals. Its financial report indicates that Lakala's performance is not good. In 2024, Lakala reported revenue and net profit of 5.762 billion yuan and 351.2 million yuan, respectively, with growth rates of -2.98% and -23.26%, marking a "double decline" in performance..." datetime: "2025-07-07T00:29:44.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/31506629.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/31506629.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/31506629.md) author: "[侃见财经](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/3206955.md)" --- # Soared 100%! Can Lakala, riding the trend, successfully 'break through'? The digital currency industry continues to receive positive news. Riding the tailwind, Lakala, which has been listed for many years, has finally caught the trend. Data shows that Lakala's stock price has surged by over 100% in the past three months. Following the significant rise, Lakala also announced plans for a Hong Kong listing. Of course, the stock price increase has little to do with fundamentals.   Its financial report shows that Lakala's performance is not good. In 2024, Lakala achieved revenue and net profit of 5.762 billion yuan and 351.2 million yuan, respectively, with growth rates of -2.98% and -23.26%, marking a "double decline" in performance. This is the second time Lakala has seen such a decline in the past three years. In Q1 of this year, Lakala's performance still showed no signs of recovery. The financial report indicates that Lakala's revenue in Q1 was 1.3 billion yuan, with a growth rate of -13.02%, and net profit was 100.6 million yuan, with a growth rate of -51.17%. Over a longer period, Q1 of this year was Lakala's worst-performing quarter, especially in terms of net profit, which hit a new low. **The "Dilemma" of Performance** Lakala's recent stock price surge began in April, driven by clear policy tailwinds. On April 21, relevant authorities jointly issued the "Shanghai International Financial Center Action Plan to Further Enhance Cross-Border Financial Services," explicitly proposing to "enhance the functionality and global network coverage of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS)" and, more notably, to "research and promote the application of blockchain technology." As "China's first listed company in the digital payment sector," Lakala is perfectly positioned to benefit from this trend. On May 21, Hong Kong passed the "Stablecoin Bill," establishing a licensing system for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers and improving the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities. The passage of this bill made Hong Kong the first major financial center to implement comprehensive stablecoin regulation, sparking speculative sentiment in the A-share market and sending stablecoin-related stocks soaring.   As one of China's first third-party payment companies to receive a license from the central bank, Lakala has not explicitly stated its intention to apply for a Hong Kong stablecoin license. However, its previous announcement mentioning "accelerating the application of digital currency in cross-border scenarios" has been widely interpreted by the market as a hint at stablecoin ambitions. From the stock price trend, investors have already labeled Lakala as a "stablecoin concept stock." From May 21 to June 30, Lakala's stock price surged by 63.41% in just 28 trading days, while the broader market rose only 2.11%. However, despite the stock price increase, Lakala's weak fundamentals remain evident. Founded in 2005, Lakala initially partnered with UnionPay to deploy terminals in convenience stores nationwide, addressing high-frequency needs such as credit card repayments and utility bill payments, thereby building a payment network centered on convenience stores. However, with the rise of Alipay and WeChat Pay, Lakala lost its foothold in the C-end market and even spun off its personal payment business in 2016 to focus entirely on B-end acquiring. Currently, Lakala's main business is "B-end acquiring," which accounted for 89.70% of its revenue in 2024. However, this B-end-focused business model faces several challenges. From a business perspective, Lakala's acquiring revenue is the net income after deducting fees paid to card issuers and clearing organizations, with merchant transaction volume and average net acquiring fee rate being the two key factors. In terms of merchant transaction volume, more and larger merchants naturally lead to higher transaction volumes, making merchant acquisition the core challenge. However, after years of development, acquiring new merchants has become increasingly difficult. The financial report shows that Lakala's "payment business" revenue in 2024 was 5.165 billion yuan, compared to 5.18 billion yuan in 2023. As for the average net acquiring fee rate, intense competition—from UnionPay and others, as well as Alipay and WeChat Pay's aggressive expansion into B-end acquiring—has kept Lakala's average net fee rate low, especially since it relies heavily on channel partners, with core agents taking over 80% of the revenue share. With little room for improvement in merchant transaction volume and average net acquiring fee rate, Lakala has hit a growth bottleneck. In 2024, Lakala's revenue and net profit were 5.762 billion yuan and 351.2 million yuan, respectively, with growth rates of -2.98% and -23.26%, marking a "double decline." In Q1 of this year, the situation worsened: revenue was 1.3 billion yuan (-13.02% YoY), and net profit was 100.6 million yuan (-51.17% YoY). **Can New Businesses Be the "Cure"?** For Lakala, developing new businesses is inevitable as traditional operations stagnate. Currently, Lakala is focusing on two new directions—cross-border payments and stablecoins. Its Hong Kong listing plans are also tied to these new businesses: The Hong Kong listing aims to "advance the company's international development strategy, build a dual-circulation pattern, create an international capital platform, accelerate the application of digital currency in cross-border scenarios, and further enhance the company's global competitiveness." But how much impact will these businesses have on Lakala? Can they help it break through the bottleneck? First, cross-border payments. Against the backdrop of RMB internationalization, cross-border payments present significant opportunities. Data shows that China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.63 trillion yuan in 2024, up 1 trillion yuan from 2020. Cross-border RMB settlements totaled approximately 64 trillion yuan, a 23% increase YoY, making the RMB the world's fourth-largest payment currency. Beyond policy tailwinds, cross-border payments represent a vast market. Lakala's cross-border payment network covers over 100 countries, connecting platforms like Amazon and eBay, and offering global collection, payment, and forex management services to import/export businesses, generating cross-border payment fees. However, due to its focus on small and medium-sized merchants, Lakala's cross-border payment volume in 2024 was 49.2 billion yuan, just 1.16% of its total payment volume of 4.22 trillion yuan—a negligible share. In summary, while cross-border payments are a massive market, Lakala's focus on small merchants limits its impact. Next, stablecoins. Lakala currently has no stablecoin-related business. Its association with the stablecoin concept stems from its announcement about "accelerating digital currency applications in cross-border scenarios." However, breaking into stablecoins is challenging. Despite being an innovative financial tool, stablecoins are still in their infancy, facing regulatory, technical, and market acceptance hurdles. Moreover, payment institutions seeking to enter the stablecoin space must apply for licenses from Hong Kong authorities and restructure their operations—a tall order for Lakala. Overall, neither cross-border payments nor stablecoins are likely to materially improve Lakala's weak performance in the short term. From an investor perspective, Lakala's shareholders have begun cashing out after the stock price surge. On May 20, Lakala disclosed that shareholder Sun Haoran planned to sell up to 19.2709 million shares (2.45% of total shares)—his entire stake. Sun Haoran, the brother of Lakala founder and chairman Sun Taoran, has repeatedly reduced his holdings, selling 4.5218 million shares between June 12 and June 18. Other major shareholders, including Legend Holdings, have also been actively selling. $Lakala(300773.SZ) ### Related Stocks - [300773.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/300773.CN.md) ## Comments (1) - **bobbyw · 2025-07-07T10:48:06.000Z**: junk stocks